


The One Where David Is In Over His Head

by phobiaDeficient (TheTriggeredHappy)



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Also my boy is a sweetie keep him safe, Canon-typical swearing, Danvid, David-Centric, It doesn't count as self-shipping if they're canonically two different people okay, M/M, Spoilers for S2 Episode 1, apparently the new ship name for this and i approve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 16:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11234586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTriggeredHappy/pseuds/phobiaDeficient
Summary: Takes place around S2E1, David on the topic of this charming new guy.





	The One Where David Is In Over His Head

**Author's Note:**

> [[Okay listen nO LISTEN, none of y'all can tell me that these two weren't flirting during the episode okay, it's canonical and I will go down with this ship on this one]]

 

 

David, quite frankly, was downright charmed by this new gent that just showed up!

 

He invited Daniel into the counselor’s cabin for the initial paperwork (doing his best to fill in certain blanks as vaguely as possible, as per standards set by Mr. Campbell himself), and his friendliness was without an end. Daniel told a few details about his previous camp—how he was a “strong leader” and he had the “full loyalty and support” of everyone there. All good things, it seemed. And just more endless smalltalk, more smiling and at some point a good solid joke that got a laugh out of David.

 

“Well, with such shining characteristics, I don’t see why we would need any references—“ David said, glancing over the paper in front of him.

 

“If you say so, then sure! You seem like a bright and observant guy, you’re clever enough to make your own judgements, aren’t you?” Daniel said with that nice smile of his.

 

“Aww, that’s awful nice of you!” David replied, eyes twinkling. “I wouldn’t say that, it’s just that you seem a great fit for this camp, and you’d make a really good influence to the kids!”

 

Something in Daniel’s expression shifted minutely. “Of course I will! What are these campers like, anyhow?” he asked, head tilting.

 

“Oh, they’re a… downright fascinating group, let me tell you!” David said, nodding. “We have a diverse group of kids here, all above 12 and under 15, all with unique interests! We have Space Kid—here for space camp, of course, a really nice kid—we have Dolph, an artsy type with a good attitude, we have Harrison here for stage magic and Nerris for fantasy magic, both great kids and very enthusiastic about their interests, and uh… Ered is here for sports camp, she’s very talented and one of the older campers, Nurf is boot camp, he’s a little scamp but he’s getting better, Preston is a theater kid and he’s very passionate about what he does! We have Neil for science camp, he’s quite a smart guy, inquisitive, we have Nikki for adventure camp, she’s a delightful ball of energy, and last but not least is Max!” He paused. “And… that should be everyone!”

 

Daniel’s smile hadn’t moved… at all, actually. Once David is done, though, it widened just slightly. “Now hold on, no snippet for that last one? Max, was it?”

 

“Oh!” David hesitated for a second. “Yes, Max! He’s been here the longest, and um, he wasn’t signed up for any specific camp, just… the whole of “Camp Campbell”, so, he sort of shifts between stations and takes up a variety of activities.”

 

“But what is he _like_ , though?” Daniel asked, leaning forward, palm on his chin. “I mean. Is he not a good kid?”

 

“No! I mean… no! He’s not a bad kid, he’s…” David hesitated. “Well, he’s not the most enthusiastic about summer camp, and I think his parents signed him up without asking. That’s just what I think happened, though. He’s a bit… oh, what’s the word? Callous? Yeah, callous and sort of… apathetic. He’s in that phase, you know how kids are.”

 

“No, I don’t think I do,” Daniel said, frowning sympathetically.

 

“Oh, he’s just a bit asocial, y’know? So, if he’s rude to you, it’s not your fault, he’s just a bit rough around the edges like that. I know that if I help him and keep on setting a positive example, he’ll learn to love camps and camping soon enough!”

 

“I see,” Daniel said, nodding and sitting back, turning it over in his head. “Thanks for the tip, I’m sure that we can turn him around and show him the light!”

 

“For sure!” David agreed, relieved that the conversation was moving again.

 

“Now, why not tell me about yourself, David?” Daniel asked, folding his hands on the table and tilting his head. “You seem like such a good counselor, how did you end up here at this camp?”

 

David beamed, and as he told his own tale in brief, Daniel’s eyes never left his face, the other man listening attentively and nodding along. He himself had to look away a few times, growing a little flustered at such intense interest. Daniel’s eyes were just… really blue. And he kind of had a dimple when he smiled really wide, and… um…

 

“I-I’m sorry, what was I saying? Kinda, uh, lost my train of thought,” David laughed nervously.

 

“You joined on the camp staff five years ago?” Daniel prompted, one eyebrow raising slightly, grin peeking up a bit because he seemed to realize that he had David off guard because he was just really—

 

“Right! And, I’ve been working here ever since! Gwen isn’t here for a few days, but she joined two years back after the previous counselor moved out-of-state midsummer. She’s better at some of the technical aspects, but I managed alone for almost a month between counselors, it’ll be fine!”

 

Daniel nodded. “Mmm-hmm. Well, what do you do when the camp isn’t in session? During the rest of the year?”

 

David paused. “I mean, that doesn’t seem important to the counselor duties,” he said slowly, politely.

 

“Oh, never mind the counselor duties for now,” Daniel said smoothly, leaning his elbows on the table and grinning in a very charming way that was just—“I want to get to know _you_.”

 

Oh.

 

_Oh._

 

“Um,” David said, voice coming out squeakier than he intended. No, play it cool, play it… “Well, uh…” he tried to swallow down the sudden high pitch in his voice. “...I-I’m sorry, I want to clarify, because this would be awkward if I was wrong, and, I-I don’t want to assume anything and upset or offend you, but just to be absolutely, positively, 100% sure, are you—“

 

“Hitting on you? Flirting with you? Making a pass at you? Coming onto you? Showing interest? Making advances? All synonymous, and all good words for what I’m currently in the process of, yeah,” Daniel said smoothly and why did he have to be so _smooth_ —

 

“Just. Checking,” David choked. His hand went to his necktie and he fidgeted nervously, wholly unprepared for this situation because the only other adult who had been around most of the summer was Gwen which was a big no for a list of reasons and David was out of practice—not that he hit on people usually, or got hit on, or did a lot of dating around or romance or one-offs or any of that really and just wow—

 

“If,” Daniel said slowly, breaking David out of his short freakout, “you’re not interested, that’s fine, I’ll back off—“

 

“No!” David said hurriedly, and Daniel raised an eyebrow and he realized how that probably sounded. “I-I-I mean, um. It’s just… I’m sorry, I’m just not used to this, um, you’re just…” He swallowed back his nervousness and tried for a smile. “You’re just really nice and all and you caught me off guard.”

 

Daniel’s eyebrows furrowed. “Is that… a rejection, or an acceptance?” he asked slowly.

 

“Um…” David floundered for a second in his mind, eyes on the table. He looked up again after a moment, smile a little firmer this time. “Not a rejection, but… let’s just see how this goes,” he said meekly.

 

And Daniel grinned and David realized too late that nobody but Quartermaster was supervising the campers. He told Daniel to just stay put, he’d be back in twenty minutes.

 

Not a great start, but David would take it.

 

* * *

 

Admittedly, the campers weren’t making a great impression on Daniel, but it could’ve been much worse than it was, and David was grateful that the new guy seemed to take it all in stride. The campers, though…

 

Max, Neil, and Nikki were being… really difficult about it. He expected it from Max, and probably Neil, but Nikki should’ve at least been nicer about it by his estimates. By the time he got to the mess hall, though, he was surprised at how well everyone else was taking the transition. Even Nurf and Ered, who were usually pretty sassy and not co-operative, were apparently behaving themselves really well.

 

The trio were sent off to be with the rest of the campers, Space Kid following just behind once the cups were counted, and—

 

“You were right, these are nice kids,” Daniel said, slinging an arm over David’s shoulder.

 

David blinked, face growing hot. “Oh, yeah. Sorry about Nikki earlier, she sometimes pulls that with me, but my shirt doesn’t stain half as bad as yours.”

 

“It turned out fine, too much sand to stick,” Daniel shrugged, squeezing David’s shoulder. “Max was about how you predicted, to be fair.”

 

“Yeah. Don’t worry, he’ll get over it with time,” David assured quickly.

 

“Oh, I wasn’t worried,” Daniel said smoothly, and David blinked, a little confused. “He might even warm up to me sooner than you’d think.”

 

“I sure hope so!” David said, surprised at Daniel’s optimism. He realized just then that his own attitude had been slipping just a bit. He needed to keep setting a better example, no wonder the kids were co-operating so well with someone this confident and charming!

 

Or. They probably didn’t think he was charming in _quite_ the same way, but, still. Charismatic would probably be a better word.

 

“And, don’t worry,” Daniel said, and David realized he’d leaned a lot closer than he’d thought. He could feel Daniel’s breath now and his eyes widened minutely. “I have the Quartermaster fellow watching the kids for now, and they’re all behaving incredibly well.”

 

“Right. That’s good,” David said, expression brightening.

 

“Sure is,” Daniel agreed.

 

“Cool,” David nodded.

 

“Great,” Daniel hummed.

 

“Yeah,” David smiled.

 

There were a few beats of pause before Daniel spoke, his impassable optimism wavering for a moment, giving way to impatience.

 

“Do I need to hint any more strongly, or can I kiss you already?” he muttered flatly.

 

David felt his face going red. “Uh, n-no, go ahead,” he stammered.

 

It was not gentle or patient or soft. It was not sweet or heart-melting or overtly romantic. It was impatient, it was demanding, and it was one of the better first kisses David had ever had. Like, wow. Seriously. David felt a stab of self-consciousness when he realized how rusty he was, but it went away from his mind pretty quickly, because after longer than expected, Daniel pulled back again, leaving David slightly breathless. Daniel’s expression wasn’t kind, it was calculating, and David couldn’t see it again in a moment because then he leaned in again and okay, they were doing this routine now, alright.

 

He felt a hand wrap around his wrist, and a hand on the back of his neck, just barely digging into his hair, and his own moved to grip loosely at the front of Daniel’s shirt. He’d picked up on it earlier, but this close he could be positive, Daniel smelled like he had been chewing fruit-flavor gum. Watermelon, maybe? He couldn’t focus on figuring it out, a little preoccupied at that moment.

 

He had to pull away first to breathe. He fought to find his words. “Um, I-I… shouldn’t we—check up on the kids, and… um…”

 

“We’ll only be gone for a few minutes, just relax,” Daniel murmured, completely unfazed and unruffled, leaning back in again.

 

It was probably something like five or six minutes before David finally got a solid enough train of thought to insist on checking on the kids. Daniel relented, asking David if he would just go double-check and make sure the paperwork was in order. He was halfway to the counselor’s cabin when he realized he would need to wait anyways on some of the documentation, and promptly started looking around for where everyone was.

 

* * *

 

David was upset.

 

He didn’t show how upset he was, at least in front of the kids, because they needed a good supportive figure after such a bad time. After such a problem with Daniel, the campers insisted on voting on whether this new person would be allowed in or not, and David agreed—agency was a very important factor in their development.

 

In a vote of nine to one, they decided that Jen wouldn’t be allowed. Space Kid was peer pressured into changing his vote, and it was then unanimous.

 

Gwen wasn’t happy, but David talked her down and she drove Jen back to a town, where she called a cab and apologized. David almost wanted to tag along, but there was a lot to do at camp.

 

She got back after dinner was called, and David made sure to save her food. She took it and said it “balanced out” the favor she was doing by not hiring the new girl. David just agreed, too tired to banter over it.

 

They were both silent for about fifteen minutes before Gwen slammed down her utensils.

 

“Okay, the fuck’s going on?” she demanded, angry.

 

David jolted, head jerking up, eyes wide. “Wh-what?”

 

“On my way in I ran into Nikki. She told me that the new guy left in a goddamn _ambulance._ What happened? Why are you acting all quiet about it? What’d you do?”

 

David leaned back. “I—Nothing! I didn’t do anything!”

 

“Was it the kids?”

 

“No!”

 

“Was it Max? Nikki? Probably fucking Nikki.”

 

“No, it was just… an accident, some kind of mistake. He drank bad punch and had an allergic reaction or something, so he got an ambulance.”

 

“Oh yeah?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“That’s all?”

 

“That’s all.”

 

“And you didn’t have a fight before this happened?”

 

David’s eyes jerked back up, and Gwen scoffed, crossing her arms. “Wait, how—“

 

“Yeah, Nikki said she remembers something like that happening. Also, even if I didn’t know before, you’re a really shitty liar.”

 

They stared at each other for a few seconds. David broke first, eyes falling.

 

“What made you do it?” she asked, voice quieter now, calmer.

 

David sunk in his seat, turning over the words. “…I thought we were gonna get fired.”

 

Gwen’s eyebrows rose. “What?”

 

David pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “He was so much better than us at being a counselor! He got everyone working together and they all loved this guy and he even had me fooled and… and where else do I have to go, Gwen? Where do we have to go?”

 

It was quiet for a few seconds. The seconds became a minute, then longer.

 

“Okay. So you had to fire a guy, and I guess he sassed you.”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Why are you so upset, then? The ambulance thing?”

 

David sighed. “No, not that. We’ve had emergencies before. It’s just…” He paused. “He was so nice and sweet and charming and I just… I think he was maybe using me?”

 

Gwen stared for a few seconds, then her eyes slowly widened. Her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my fucking god you’re shitting me right now what the _hell_ David.”

 

David was sitting up, hands up my his shoulders. “No, listen, Gwen don’t—“

 

_“Did you hit on the new guy, what the hell David—“_

 

“I did _not_ hit on him, _he_ hit on _me_ and then I was cool with it and maybe we made out a little—“

 

“DAVID WHAT THE FUCK WHY WASN’T THIS THE FIRST THING YOU SAID OH MY GOD—“

 

“NO GWEN LISTEN DON’T FREAK OUT—“

 

“I’M FREAKIN’ OUT, DAVID, TOO LATE!”

 

She continued to freak out about it for a solid few minutes, yelling and just repeating “oh my god” for a little while before she pulled herself together. David had his head on the table by then.

 

She took a deep breath. “Okay, first of all, elephant in the room… which base.”

 

David’s head shot up, eyes wide, face going scarlet. _“GWEN!”_

 

She raised her hands. “Sorry! Just asking!” she laughed, fighting back a grin. He slumped back over again. “…so like, second?”

 

“Shut up!” David yelped, and Gwen started laughing full on now. She finally got herself under control, and a few beats of silence fell. Gwen finished her food and put down her utensils again. “It was only like, halfway to second,” he mumbled, and she was off and rolling again.

 

“Okay, but for real,” Gwen finally said, “I need the hard facts, gimme those juicy details.”

 

David sat up, leaning back in his chair and looking at the ceiling, thinking. “Well… you left, we did boring paper stuff and chatted over it, he asked me about the campers, I told him, he asked me when I started at camp and all that, then he asked what I do in my free time and when I asked what that had to do with the topic—it… what? Gwen, what?”

 

“You fucking idiot,” she groaned. “How slow on the uptake can you get?”

 

“What?” he demanded, worried.

 

“Dude, he was flirting from the point that he asked you when you started at the camp,” she deadpanned.

 

“Well, I know that _now_ ,” David muttered.

 

“Whatever, go on,” she waved it off.

 

“…Okay. I asked him what that had to do with counselor stuff and he dropped some really good pickup line and I asked if he was flirting just to make sure, he said yes, and I said “okay cool” and sort of gave him a noncommittal yes, a sort of “let’s see how this goes, then maybe” sort of deal.”

 

“Okay, and then you made out?”

 

“No!” David said, face red again. “I don’t go around kissing just anybody, Gwen!”

 

“Sure thing, bud. When did that happen, then?”

 

“Uh… later, we were alone in the mess hall for a little while, the campers were doing another activity.”

 

“Ooh,” Gwen teased, laughing when David rolled his eyes. “Okay, so are you like… gonna hit him up?”

 

David’s energy disappeared again. “I… don’t think so. I realized the threat to our jobs and figured we could just let him go and I could see if I could salvage it, but he pulled some legal jargon and I proposed a sing-off because I figured he would just give up there, but he didn’t and he got really uncool with me and said some mean stuff and…” he trailed off.

 

Gwen’s expression went serious too. “When’d the punch happen?”

 

“End of the song,” David said sullenly. He exhaled slowly through his nose. “I just, and he made me feel all… special and important, like. He seemed so interested in me, and on a dime he just…” He paused. “Gwen, am I a nobody?”

 

She blinked, then frowned. “He called you a fuckin’ nobody after mackin’ on you?”

 

David nodded and Gwen crossed her arms.

 

“Well, fuck that guy. He’s the nobody, not you. He just wanted to make you feel bad, you’re not a nobody, you’re probably the only reason this camp even exists. Well, that and Campbell’s money scam, but, whatever, point stands, dude. Just, don’t worry about it, okay? You’ll find a nice, non-asshole guy and date him instead.”

 

“Or girl.”

 

“Or girl.”

 

“Or other.”

 

“Just fuckin’ assume it’s all-encompassing, jackass, don’t split hairs when I’m trying to give a super awesome pep talk to you,” Gwen said flatly, standing and taking both of their plates and starting to walk. “God, smartass…” she muttered to herself, not without affection.

 

“Thanks, Gwen,” he said quietly.

 

“Don’t mention it.”

 

Silence fell over their section of the camp, and David was back to normal again. He was always the type to bounce back, and by morning he knew that he would be right as rain. He would be fine, and he would be back in action in no time, he was sure of it.

 

“No, like, seriously, don’t mention it, I wanna stop imagining you frenching your remastered double.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [[Hope you liked it, I love this show and these characters and would love to do more for this series, hit me with those comments with suggestions for the future, and keep it real]]


End file.
